All you can eat subscription services are growing in popularity, and it’s easy to understand why. Give Spotify $10 per month and you can listen to just about every song ever recorded. Give Netflix the same amount of cash and you can instantly start streaming thousands of movies or television shows. When it comes to the printed word though, people are a bit apprehensive because it’s just so damn easy to find “articles” written by “journalists” that are essentially rewritten pieces from The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. Next Issue wants to change people’s attitudes by giving people access to 34 monthly magazines for just $10 per month. Bump that up to $15 per month and you’ll also get access to 5 weekly magazines, including The New Yorker and Time. According to Engadget, Next Issue plans on doubling the number of magazines they offer by the end of the year. Best part is the prices aren’t going to change!
Will this take off? That’s hard to say. Like we said earlier, there are plenty of “new media” properties out there who pay interns peanuts to rewrite articles that were published at reputable news organizations. Magazines are great, but they’re inherently old school since the content they produce is refreshed either once a month or once a week. People want information right now. There are some people who will pay for Next Issue, we have absolutely no doubt about that, what we question however is the viability of the magazines that Next Issue features. Many of them are hurting, and we can’t help but think that $15 per month, split among 39 publications, is going to keep said publications in business.
Anyway, do check the app out, which is now available for Apple’s iPad. This writer doesn’t have an iPad, and thus can’t review the app. Next Issue is offering a free 30 day trial, so you might want to check it out and leave us a comment below.